


You Belong To Me

by combeferrer



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Manipulation, Fluff, M/M, Nightmares, au where will and hannibal are next door neighbors, they communicate by holding signs up to their bedroom windows, those two tags don't normally go together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-14
Updated: 2013-06-14
Packaged: 2017-12-14 22:50:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/842267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/combeferrer/pseuds/combeferrer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She wears dresses/ I wear suits/ She gives psychology lectures/ And I'm the Chesapeake Ripper/ Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find/ That you wanna kill people with me</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Belong To Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meronicavars (Godbriel)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Godbriel/gifts).



> this is actually ridiculous.  
> this is gifted to winter, who without, this fic would definitely not be here. she actually triggered the idea to come to me in the first place and told me to write. if she hadn't told me to, i wouldn't have written it. she helped me a ton and wo W i love her. she's the bev to my will and im so grateful to her <3

Will Graham did not make a habit of waking up screaming from nightmares. His usual nightmares had him tossing and turning until his sheets fell to the ground and had him sweating through his pajamas. He would wake up breathing heavily and shallowly, trying to compose himself as his dogs looked on in concern.

Tonight, however, was different.

Will woke up to find he had fallen to the floor and his throat was hoarse from screaming in his sleep. He sat up and looked up at the clock on his nightstand, which read "3:00 A.M." He ran a hand through his sweat soaked curls and dragged himself to the open window to breathe in the crisp night time air.

Will rested his head against the cool glass and just breathed, trying to calm his racing heart.

As he stood against the window, the lights across the narrow strip of grass that separated his house from his next door neighbor's house flicked on.

Will hardly knew the man that lived there, and aside from a polite "hello" or "hey, how are you," he had never spoken to him. Guilt and embarrassment rushed through him for disturbing the man. Will looked up and noticed that the man stood at his window, staring directly at him. The man attempted to make eye contact, but Will avoided it as he took in the shocking sight of a man who was always in a three-piece suit wearing silk pajamas with his hair a disaster rustled upon his head. Will suddenly felt self-conscious of the fact that he himself was wearing no more than a t-shirt and boxers and the man had a very clear view of him.

Will watched as the man grabbed a notepad and pen and wrote. The man held up the pad against the window.

"Are you alright?" it asked in a sprawling script.

Will raised his eyebrows in surprise at the man's concern, but shuffled around his room, knocking down useless books and papers until he found a notebook. He wrote a response and held it against the window.

"Not exactly," it answered in a messy scrawl.

Will watched as the man quickly wrote another message.

"Would you like to come over and talk?"

Will was shocked by the man's kindness.

"No, it's alright. I don't want to bother you more than I already have," Will wrote.

"It is no trouble. In fact, I insist," the man wrote back.

Will debated his answer, writing yes and no several, times before scribbling them out.

He settled on "Alright" and flashed it to the man before he could change his mind.

-

Will shivered in the cool night air as he waited at his neighbor's doorstep. He began to think that perhaps he should have worn more than a towel to dry his sweat and his soaked pajamas to the house of an almost-stranger when the man opened the door.

"Hello," the man greeted him. He surveyed Will up and down, taking in the sight of the frazzled man before him.

"Hi," Will responded uncomfortably. His teeth were chattering. He rubbed his hands up and down his arms to try and create heat.

"Please, come in," the man said, stepping aside so that Will could enter.

Will walked through the door and looked around his neighbor's house. The decor was elegant, with mainly neutral colors aside from red accents. Will felt oddly at ease, though he didn’t know the man at all.

"Thanks for, um...inviting me over," Will said awkwardly as he stood in the middle of the living room, unsure of whether to sit or stand.

"It is nothing, now please, sit," the man told him.

Will nodded and sat on the comfortable couch nearest to him, while his neighbor sat in the matching chair across from him.

"Now, I don't think we've ever properly introduced ourselves to each other. My name is Dr. Hannibal Lecter, and you are?" his neighbor asked conversationally, as if it weren't three in the morning and this was a completely normal event.

"I'm Will Graham," he responded, looking at Hannibal but avoiding his eyes.

"So, Will, what is it that caused you to wake up screaming?" Dr. Lecter asked.

"Oh, the usual, average horrific nightmares. I'm used to them," Will told him, looking away at a mounted deer head on the wall. The antlers almost glinted in the low light because they were so spotless.

"But these nightmares do not normally cause you to scream in your sleep, do they?" Hannibal asked.

"No, not usually. They were worse than normal this time, Dr. Lecter," Will answered, still staring at the deer's head.

"So what was your nightmare about. And, please, call me Hannibal."

Will looked back at him and saw that he looked genuinely curious about his response.

"What kind of doctor are you?" Will asked instead of answering, leaning forward in the couch and crossing his arms.

"I used to be a surgeon, but now I am a psychiatrist," Hannibal answered, taking in Will's change in position, noting to himself how guarded he had become.

"What, are you gonna try and psychoanalyze me, or what, force therapy on me? Many have tried before, Dr. Lecter, but it never works," Will shot back in response.

"That is not what I want at all, Will, I simply desire to help you. Also, please, call me Hannibal," Hannibal responded. He leaned forward towards Will, trying to create eye contact.

Will let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and sagged backwards against the cushioned back of the couch.

"Sorry, Hannibal, I just have trust issues with doctors. They always try to force me into things and pry too much and act like I'm some interesting specimen to be observed," Will muttered apologetically in response.

"It's quite alright, Will. Now, what was your nightmare about?"

Will closed his eyes and took in a deep breath of air.

"You're gonna move away when you hear this, you won't want to live next door to me," Will warned him.

Hannibal cracked a small smile.

"That would surely be impossible, Will."

Will chuckled bitterly.

"So in the dream, I was alone in a forest. It was nighttime, and I was walking around. I heard a twig crack behind me and realized that I was being followed by, this is gonna sound crazy, but by a, uh, black stag," Will paused momentarily to shakily take a deep breath in, bracing himself before continuing. "When I noticed this, this stag, I looked around and, um, noticed that a dead human body was nailed to each tree with one, long nail straight through the heart. Suddenly, my hands felt heavy and I looked at them, only to realize that, that my hands were absolutely covered in blood and I held a hammer in my hand. I had killed a forest full of people, and suddenly, the whole forest flooded crimson with thick blood. Even the trees and the bodies melted into blood and I drowned in this all consuming amount of blood."

Will finished his story and stated forward blankly, his whole body shaking with anxious tremors that refused to seize.

Hannibal stared analytically at Will, processing the nightmare that Will had just described in detail.

"Do you have these nightmares often?"

"Every night, though not usually as bad as tonight's."

"You need a sense of stability, Will, to ground you in reality after such disorienting dreams. You need to return to yourself after these terrifying nightmares and realize that you have not committed such a deed," Hannibal instructed Will carefully.

"The only sense of stability I have is my dogs," Will replied with a forced half-smile.

Hannibal smiled slightly.

"If you would like, Will, I can be your stability."

"No, that's ridiculous and far too much for me to ask of you," Will responded quickly.

"You need not worry about me, Will, only yourself," Hannibal instructed.

"Are you sure this is alright?" Will questioned.

"Is it alright with you?" Hannibal turned back on him.

"Yeah, I guess, bu-"

"Then it is alright with me," Hannibal cut him off.

Will bit his lip nervously, but nodded in agreement.

"If you have a nightmare, just simply throw something at my window so that you will gain my attention and I can let you in," Hannibal instructed.

"Alright, and this is fine?" Will asked again.

"Absolutely," Hannibal reaffirmed.

“Thanks,” Will mumbled, staring at his lap.

“Now, would you like to go home or sleep here?” Hannibal asked.

Will’s eyes widened in surprise.

“I’ll go home, I’ve already asked too much of you,” Will answered.

“You have asked nothing, Will, but I will escort you home if you wish,” Hannibal told him.

Will nodded and got up from his seat on the couch.

They walked through the doorway of Hannibal’s house and up his walkway. Will’s bare feet made no noise on the concrete and Hannibal’s slippers only scraped gently. They walked in silence, but Will suddenly felt extremely tired, the adrenaline from his nightmare done coursing through his veins, leaving him exhausted.

He felt ready to collapse, and Hannibal must have noticed because he grabbed his shoulder, startling Will.

Will must have involuntarily jumped, because Hannibal apologetically told him “sorry, you stumbled and I was trying to steady you.”

“‘S fine,” Will slurred in return.

They arrived at Will's door and Will yawned.

"Do you want me to walk you to your room so I can make sure that you don't trip on the stairs?" Hannibal asked.

"No, 'm fine," Will responded through a yawn.

"Alright, good night, Will," Hannibal said with a small smile.

"Good night, Hannibal," Will responded, smiling as well.

Hannibal turned and walked away and Will walked into his house. He trudged up the stairs and fell into bed, falling asleep immediately.  
Miraculously, his nightmares did not return that night.


End file.
